“Shrove” is the past tense of the verb “to shrive”, meaning “absolve from sin”, and seems to be currently used only in relation to “Shrove Tuesday”, the day before Ash Wednesday.
In the Middle Ages, on Shrove Tuesday morning the church bell would ring, calling Christians to church to confess their sins and be “shriven” – in other words, receive absolution or forgiveness. This was especially important at the start of the Lenten season, a forty-day period leading up to Easter in the liturgical calendar. During this time, strict Christians would practice self-denial by abstaining from meat, sweets, and often dairy products, to commemorate the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness in preparation for his ministry. Post-Reformation, the ringing of the church bell also signified the beginning of festivities, the last chance for a party and a feast before the dry days of Lent. In some parts of the world, these festivities would take the form of a raucous carnival (Latin “vale a carne” – “farewell to flesh”).
On the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, households would use up items such as sugar, butter, milk, and eggs, so they would not be tempted to break their fast during Lent. Pancakes were easily made from these ingredients and provided needed nutrients before the fasting period. Traditionally, fasting meant only one meal a day. Since the Reformation, the practice of fasting has gradually been replaced by an emphasis on giving to charity.
The first pancake recipe known was in a cookbook dating back to the year 1439. That pancakes were considered a luxury food in those calorie-starved days is evident in this commentary from the sixteenth century:
“Then there is a bell rung, cal’d the Pancake-bell, the sound whereof makes thousands of people distracted, and forgetful either of manners or humanitie: then there is a thing called wheaten floure, which the cookes do mingle with water, eggs, spice, and other tragical, magical inchantments, and then they put it little by little into a frying pan of boiling suet…until at last, by the skill of the Cooke, it is transformed into the forme of a Flip-Jack, cal’d a pancake, which ominous incantation the ignorant people doe devour very greedily.”
A Pancake Day race has been run on Shrove Tuesday since 1445 in the village of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England. It is said to have started when a housewife who was busy cooking pancakes lost track of time and heard the village church bell calling people to confession. She ran to the church still holding her frying pan. Over the years the race has continued, with runners dressed in aprons and bonnets flipping their pancakes as they run.
The custom of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is not peculiar to the English, however. In Scotland the day is called Fasten’s E’en, or Bannocky Day, in reference to bannocks of eggs and meal mixed with salt and baked on a gridiron. Many other countries have their own version of the pancake: crepes in France, fastlagsbulle in Sweden, fasnacht in Germany, wheat flour and potato pancakes in the Netherlands, etc.
So what did people eat during Lent, after the pancakes were gone? Since Church rules decreed that fish was not meat, it appeared that fish was the chief Lenten fare. Edward III had a particular penchant for herring pies, according to his royal household accounts. Charters granted to seaports often stipulated that the town should send a quantity of herrings to the King during Lent. This rule was preserved after the Reformation by Protestant politicians, because it was good for the fishing industry.
In modern times, Christian society has largely abandoned the practice of eating no meat at all during Lent. In the household of my childhood, we adhered to the Catholic rule of “no meat on Fridays”, as do most present-day practising Catholics. In a house full of children who weren’t crazy about fish, one heavily featured dish on Fridays, and my favourite, was macaroni and cheese. I still make it the way my mother did, using a pound of Velveeta cheese, milk, butter, and elbow macaroni. Occasionally she would add a can of tomatoes or a layer of sautéed onions to it, to please my father. (We children preferred she didn’t) . My family loves it as much today as I did sixty-five years ago.
So, now that you know more about Shrove Tuesday than you really needed to know, aren’t your mouths watering for some of our famous Down East Pancakes? This year, 2026, Shrove Tuesday falls on February 17, and a Pancake Supper featuring light, fluffy pancakes made with milk, eggs, canola oil, sugar and flour, and no added chemicals, will be hosted by the Outreach Committee. Perhaps for our entertainment this year we should stage a Pancake race, complete with aprons, bonnets, and frying pans…or not!